After much speculation from fans and postponement by management, is British superstar band Coldplay finally ready to confirm its concert date in Manila?
The confirmation is set to be announced today on the band’s website, coldplay.com, and on the online platforms of Music Management International (MMI), the concert’s promoter.
The Manila date is part of the fifth leg of Coldplay’s ongoing world tour in support of its seventh and latest studio album, “A Head Full of Dreams.”
On April 14, we reported on Inquirer.net that MOA Arena had been booked for Coldplay to perform this November, but apparently it did not push through due to unspecified reasons.
On Aug. 21, the Inquirer caught the first of Coldplay’s two-night concerts at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, Los Angeles. More than 50,000 people watched the show.
The concert was broadcast on live streaming in the Philippines through the sponsorship of telecom network Globe and concert promoter MMI.
Early in the show, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin took the mic to greet Filipino fans tuned in to the live stream.
In our online report (“Coldplay concert delights Rose Bowl Stadium crowd,” Aug. 21, Inquirer.net), we wrote:
“Thousands of Filipino fans expressed their enthusiasm by tweeting the event, making it a top trending topic online. The only question now is: When is the band coming to Manila? A source told the Inquirer to expect an announcement soon.”
The band’s confirmation of the Manila date will give fans sufficient time to save up for tickets.
Coldplay is composed of Martin (vocals, guitar), Jonny Buckland (lead guitar), Guy Berryman (bass), and Will Champion (drums).
Earliest formation
The band’s earliest formation was in September 1996, when Martin met Buckland during orientation week at University College London. The duo went on to form a group called Pectoralz, with Berryman joining later.
The following year, the group renamed itself Starfish and started performing in small clubs. The band officially changed its name to Coldplay shortly after Champion became a member.
It took a few more years and after releasing three EPs that Coldplay scored a hit single, “Shiver,” from its 2000 album “Parachutes.”
This was followed in the same year by a remarkable headlining appearance at the Glastonbury Festival and the release of a second single, “Yellow.”
After the success of 2002’s “A Rush of Blood To the Head” and 20015’s “X&Y,” the band came out with 2008’s “Viva La Vida” whose title track shot to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Final album?
Rolling Stone magazine has quoted Martin hinting that “A Head Full of Dreams”—released in 2015 after 2011’s “Mylo Xyloto” and 2014’s “Ghost Stories—might be the band’s final album: “It’s our seventh thing, and the way we look at it, it’s like the last Harry Potter book or something like that…
“Not to say that there might not be another thing one day, but this is the completion of something.
“I have to think of it as the final thing we’re doing. Otherwise we wouldn’t put everything into it.”